Tag Archives: canine functional strength

Strong adductors and abductors are important for both non linear sports such as agility, as well as more linear sports like Flyball. For nonlinear sports like agility strong adductors will help your dog change direction and stabilize themselves while moving across the equipment. For linear sports like Flyball, strong adductors and abductors will help keep limbs moving efficiently in their intended direction with minimal wiggle or wobble.

In our Peanut Canine Conditioning Course, we talk about how one of the most versatile pieces of canine conditioning equipment is the peanut. Its length creates the ideal platform for a dog to stand. Its lateral movement targets the area of a dog where it is physically weakest. Its roll creates an ideal platform for dynamic stabilization challenges. Its height is enough for jump drills, hindlimb or forelimb isolation exercises.

Hi everyone. We are extremely excited to present an array of online courses for your canine athlete, working dog, or pet. Over the next few months we will be building our course library with self guided, instructor based, and/or custom programs to improve your competitive dog’s performance, your pet dog’s behavior, your senior dog’s vitality, or help get your previously injured dog back to top form.

Currently we have three classes beginning in January, and two more slated for February and March. We are offering discounts on early enrollment for the classes that are starting in January as well as pre-registration for notification about early enrollment saving for future classes. Here is what’s available now: Continue reading Online Canine Conditioning, Health & Behavior Courses→

In today’s blog post we’d like to show a great dynamic hindlimb strengthening and awareness exercise that utilizes a donut vertical against the wall. To minimize the risk of injury we most start off with the simplest version of this exercise and use a controlled exercise progression. We want our dogs to develop enough strength and awareness so at the most advanced level, if the donut rolls, they will not be susceptible to injury. As well, by request, at the end of this written post, we have an instructional video featuring the exercise progression.Continue reading Dynamic Hind Limb Awareness And Strengthening→

Have you ever noticed your dog leaning when they are taking a tight turn. (If not, just look at the above photo.) Interestingly, if they’re turning right, they lean on their right side. If they are turning left, they lean on their left side. This isn’t just true for your dog, if you’ve ever seen a person turn on a motorcycle, they lean so much it’s hard to understand how they don’t fall. Runners do it too. Sprinters in the 200 meter are taught to “lean in” to the turn as they come around the track. Continue reading Conditioning Tighter Turns For Agility Dogs→

In an article written by Dr. Sherman Canapp for Clean Run magazine he states, “Traumatic incidents result in active eccentric muscle contraction, in which the muscle is activated during a stretch, such as slipping into a splay-legged position” (read the original article or a revisited article) In short, while the muscle is getting longer (from the movement during the slip) the dog contracts and tightens it in order to prevent continued slipping. The slip alone might cause a tear after the muscle has stretched beyond it’s normal range of motion. However, the contraction of the muscle while it’s lengthening almost guarantees the tear because the muscle is already over extended from the leg slipping.

Canine conditioning as it is generally practiced is not really geared toward canine athletic performance. There are a lot of great exercises that ultimately will not translate to improved performance or injury prevention because the execution will never advance beyond a dog simply going through the motion of the exercises. That’s because the overwhelming majority of canine conditioning exercises never move beyond their canine rehabilitation roots. Continue reading The Problem With Canine Conditioning→

At The Martial ARFS™ we use our pool for a variety of water based exercises that go well beyond swimming. We call them Open Water Exercises (OWE) or Aquatic Conditioning, and you can have your dog perform them in a pool or any other open body of water. The purpose of Open Water Exercise is to incorporate a variety of exercises into a canine athlete or a companion dog’s conditioning program that use water to provide resistance, buoyancy, instability, challenge, and/or safety. Continue reading 8 Reasons To Exercise Your Dog In A Pool→

How do you build your dog’s cardiovascular Endurance? Should you do High Intensity Short Duration or Low Intensity Long Duration. What about muscle endurance? How long should a set of Puppy Push Ups or Squats last? Or how long should an entire conditioning sessions last? At The Martial ARFS™ we use three components to develop dog’s endurance: Cardiovascular Endurance, Muscle Endurance, and Mental Endurance. Continue reading Functional Canine Conditioning Part 4: Endurance→

Posts navigation

You don’t need a ton of Canine Conditioning gear to keep your dog fit, improve performance or just have some fun. Using just a peanut, our One Piece Workouts The Peanut will give you a variety of excises & activities you and your dog will love!

Behavior, Balance, Fitness Focus. Working on balance discs , donuts or other set ups while learning & practicing a variety of commands like sit, down, stay, come, create a whole new fun and challenging way for you to improve your dog’s behavior, focus, health!